The Calgary Flames‘ push to get younger continues.
The team has agreed to a deal to send veteran defenceman MacKenzie Weegar to the Utah Mammoth, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
Weegar has a no-trade clause, but he has agreed to waive it to complete the trade, Sportsnet’s Eric Francis reports.
The Flames and Mammoth announced the trade shortly after.
Coming back to Calgary will be defenceman Olli Maatta, three 2026 second-round picks and prospect Jonathan Castagna. The three picks the Flames acquired belong to Utah, Ottawa and the New York Rangers.
“The way I feel about MacKenzie, he’s a great person, I’m going to miss him just like Rasmus Andersson,” Flames GM Craig Conroy said in an interview on Sportsnet 960 The Fan shortly after the trade was completed. “… You’re always with these guys, and they are just good people and you want the best for them.
Obviously we want to be in a position where we’re in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and not doing this, but here we are.”
As far as the return, Conroy is especially excited about what the 31-year-old Maatta will bring to the locker room.
“He’s a competitive guy, he wants to win,” Conroy said of Maatta. “You know I see him as a solid, good puck mover, PK guy. I don’t see him on the power play, but I do see him playing good minutes for us, and then all of a sudden he’s going to be able to help these younger guys along.”
In terms of Weegar, the defenceman spoke to Sportsnet’s Eric Francis earlier Wednesday about the possibility of being traded.
“I think I’ll put it this way, ” he said when asked about possibly waiving his no-trade.
“I think everything’s got to be put into consideration at some point. Will I? I don’t know, but obviously it’s the first time I’ve ever been in a situation with a lot of rumours around me. So, it’s new, it’s different.”
Weegar, 32, will give the Mammoth an immediate boost to their top-four on the blue line ahead of the playoffs. He isn’t a rental either, with a contract that runs until after the 2030-31 season with a $6.25-million cap hit.
This season, he leads the Flames with 23:07 of ice time per game, and has three goals, 21 points and a minus-35 in 60 games.
“MacKenzie is a high-end defenseman with the type of leadership and work ethic that we want in a top-four blueliner,” Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong said in a statement. “Acquiring MacKenzie solidifies our back end as we continue to push towards the playoffs, and he will be a great addition to our team on and off the ice.”
The Flames are in the midst of a disappointing season and will miss the playoffs for the fourth-straight year. In January, they traded veteran Andersson to the Vegas Golden Knights and are reportedly shopping Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman before the March 6 trade deadline.
Weegar was in his fourth season with the Flames after being acquired alongside Jonathan Huberdeau in the Matthew Tkachuk trade back in 2023.
Castagna, 20, is playing in the NCAA with Cornell and has 32 points in 29 games this season. He was selected 70th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. Maatta is a 13-year veteran who won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in his career.
The Mammoth are looking to make the playoffs in their second season since moving to Utah. They are currently sitting in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference with 68 points, but are competing with the Seattle Kraken, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings for positions.
